FBI agents try to interview activists about Burlington protests

Ben was not surprised when he heard that two agents from the Albany regional office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation turned up at his apartment last Thursday.

“If you are an activist, it’s expected at some point that they’ll come to your door,” he said.

Ben, whose real name is being withheld at his request after word began circulating of the FBI’s visit, said he wasn’t home at the time. His housemate Jo Robin said the federal agents told her they wanted to interview Ben about planned protests of the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers in Burlington on July 30.

Jo, who prefers to use an assumed name, considered the visit a form of intimidation aimed at chilling political speech. In a story posted at privacysos.org, she wrote, “It isn’t appropriate, and I want the federal government to know that we are not intimidated.”

A Facebook update for Occupy Boston described the encounter this way:

“FBI agents visited the apartment of an activist in Vermont today (7/26/12) in advance of the planned regional Occupy gathering in Vermont on the weekend – see the report, as well as advice for YOU should you receive such a visit, namely, take their card and say your lawyer will contact them. Never lie to a federal agent, that is a felony.”

But why that apartment, and why now? Ben, Jo and a third housemate, Thomas (whose real name has also been withheld for fear of reprisals), are three of hundreds of protesters gearing up for events in response to the official bi-national gathering.

The protests, known online as the BTV Convergence, could become the largest direct action in opposition to the tar sands expansion to date in New England, according to 350.org, a group dedicated to heightening awareness of climate change.

The three activists in question have been involved in previous protests, and in response to heightened government surveillance, the activists have sought to protect their anonymity. Thomas has been participated in other local Occupy events, Jo was questioned previously while organizing in New York, and Ben was an activist in Indiana before relocating to the Burlington area.

The agents knew exactly where to find Ben, but they apparently did not know what he looked like. They asked Thomas if he was the one they wanted.

“It’s not pretty remarkable,” Ben told VTDigger. “It doesn’t blow my mind. But it does get my goat that it’s not unusual.” His activist work is legal and nonviolent, he points out. “I just make phone calls, work on housing and do spreadsheets,” he said. At some protests he has engaged in civil disobedience.

“If the FBI is showing up at my neighbor’s door just to ask questions, just to conduct surveillance, that’s ridiculous,” Ben continued.

After the incident, Ben and other protest organizers came to the conclusion they didn’t want to make it “too big a deal.” “We want to make it known, but it’s not the story of this weekend,” Ben said.

The objectives of the action, according to the Governors’ Conference Welcoming Committee, a group of Vermonters organizing logistical support for activists from across the region, are to confront conferees at the Hilton, create a regional dialogue on the issues, and strengthen ties that “build our capacity for a prolonged culture of resistance.”

Avery Pittman, a media coordinator for the Welcoming Committee, said in a statement that FBI visits have occurred, “but I think it really highlights the lack of transparency and tolerance for dissent that surrounds conferences such as these, We mobilize as people affected by a failing economic system, by the impacts of these energy infrastructure projects, as migrants and citizens affected by border policies that prioritize moving money over our families and friends, and we deserve a voice at the table. That we as organizers expected police investigation underscores how participation is discouraged.”

The Albany FBI office did not respond to phone inquiries Saturday afternoon about its agents’ activities in Vermont. At the Burlington Police Department, Lt. Scott Davidson, on duty for the weekend, said he had heard nothing, “but the FBI doesn’t always tell us.”

Mike Kanerick, an aide to Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger, said city officials were not aware of FBI activity related to the protests, and “therefore, cannot comment on it.” Kanerick said the mayor “welcomes peaceful protesters to the city and appreciates their efforts to bring attention to a range of important environmental and labor issues.”

According to the bureau’s website, Burlington’s Joint Terrorism Task Force operates as a satellite of the Albany JTTF. When “special events” occur – things like mass protests at a gathering of New England governors, Canadian premiers, ambassadors, and business leaders – the Albany JTTF is supposed to bring together local, state and federal resources to “proactively identify threats.”

Asked about security preparations in anticipation of the protests in Burlington, Lt. Davidson said that local police plan for any special event, but he knew of no special alerts about this one.

Last fall University of North Texas student Ben Kessler, a Marine veteran and fracking activist, spent months avoiding FBI phone calls. Kessler works with Rising Tide, a network of environmental groups that sometimes uses civil disobedience as a tactic. In February, an FBI agent and Dallas police officer came to campus to question one of Kessler’s professors.

Last week journalist Will Potter released documents that show the FBI “creating reports and maintaining files about the writing, interviews, and lectures of journalists who are critical of the government’s repression of political activists.” The files included Potter’s work.

About Greg

Greg Guma is a longtime Vermont journalist. Starting as a Bennington Banner reporter in 1968, he was the editor of the Vanguard Press from 1978 to 1982, and published a syndicated column in the 1980s and 90s. From the mid-90s to 2004 he edited Toward Freedom, then a print magazine covering global affairs, and organized one the first Independent Media conferences, held in Burlington in 2000. In 2004, he co-founded Vermont Guardian with Shay Totten. Two years later he became CEO of Pacifica Radio. He writes about media and society on his blog, Maverick Media (http://muckraker-gg.blogspot.com).

I also want to assure them that everything I told them was, to the best of my knowledge, true – On both visits.

As fr Vermont – The only question likely being asked in the international rights community is how much payola got spread around Vermont to insulate AT&T and the Department of the Navy from legal liability on the Elizabeth Teague shooting at Bennington.

If Vermont’s activists (funny how being active has become a pejorative of sorts) had instead been funneling billions of earth destroying, climate change denying dollars as speech there would never have been a visit from the FBI.

But these folks are PEOPLE exercising free speech, not huge amounts of multinational MONEY exercising free speech – so these folks are to be viewed with suspicion and trepidation.

I think we must all come to grips on the issues that impact us Americans directly and they are many. I do think that everyone has a job to do FBI and local law enforcement but at the end of the day when they take off the uniform, put their badge and gun away for the night they are still people. People with families and loved ones and they also know the difference between right and wrong, deep inside they know that the system needs tweaking and we’re about to head for a disaster if things don’t change. A Disaster in the economical arena and as a whole, so with that said stop hiding behind your badges and put your hand to your heart and feel that what is wrong with America is not the activists or LE but the corporatocracy that has America by the throat.

The FBI? That’s the group two of whose members STOLE the audio tape of Sputnik 1 the morning after it first flew and radio station WKCR-fm was the first in the USA to tape and rebroadcast it. Anyone who cooperates with the FBI is condoning and acting as a co-conspirator for a pack of thieves. May they all die slowly of loathsome diseases. Franklin, Washington, Madison and Jefferson would be ashamed

Joelen Mulvaney

I was in a lawn chair most of the morning and afternoon observing city and state police milling around the front entrance to the Hilton where a black armored cargo sized van with tinted windows was parked all day with DOT decal identifying it as from VA. they obviously knew the feds were there and directly involved. My guess is the feds were in control and instructed the Burlington City police in the dispersal tactics they eventually used. They wanted no embarrassing arrests and didn’t have enough officers to make arrests effective….the leaders just HAD to get to dinner. One of the hotel drivers let me know that Harper was due any moment around 1PM. My sign? “Harper: Stop illegal clear cut on Algonkin Land” After protesters left for Battery Park my compadre and I went into the lobby to look around, staties prevented us from going into the ballroom. There were secret service everywhere, some dressed like tourists, one like a journalist. Very interesting. the Burlington Police Commission should hold an immediate investigation.

Alex Barnham

If all the energy spent parading and carrying signs and flags was converted into organizing a national holiday on consuming, we would make a more peaceful and verdant world. Occupying is a military game. If you want to stop this crazy system, use some common sense.

Libby Matthews

A national holiday on consuming? What do you think all the national holidays are already?

Jim Busch

Mr. Guma, I like your articles but this one comes off more of “fantasy” or “tin foil hat” rather than true journalism. There is no “fact-check”. Were Jo and Ben visited by an FBI agent or was it made up? If they were visited by an FBI agent it is standard procedure by an agent(from ANY Federal Agency) to offer his/her business card with contact information especially if the person in question is not home.

Anybody could have stopped by and said they were the FBI.

Alex Barnham

I once was visited by the MIB…they gave me a copy of the Watchtower and a pledge form for Mitt Romney. When I asked if Mitt was in favor of using nuclear weapons against Iran, they both assured me that Mitt would follow the lead of Israel. I asked if he would follow the lead of the American people and they assured me he would not.